India to launch Mars mission in October
February 21, 2013, 9:19 am

The ISRO hope the mission to Mars will identify reasons for loss of atmosphere on the planet [Getty Images]

India will launch its first space mission to Mars this year to look for signs of life, says President Pranab Mukherjee.

“Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India’s first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite,” President Mukherjee said in his maiden address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session.

The Mars mission means India joins the elite club of five nations comprising of the US, Russia, Europe, China and Japan which have launched similar missions to the planet.

India is stepping up its space programme with a higher budget, the launch of a new satellite and the mission to Mars.

The country’s space agency will attempt ten space missions by November 2013, bringing its total budget to $1.3 billion.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will also put into orbit the first of its seven satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

The system is India’s version of the Global Positioning System.

The Mars Orbiter mission, scheduled for launch in October, will look for signature of life and reasons for loss of atmosphere on the red planet.

Under the mission, India will put in orbit a spacecraft using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The satellite will undertake a 300-day journey to Mars and is expected to be put into the Martian orbit in September next year.

Mukherjee said the space programme epitomised India’s scientific achievements and benefits the country in a number of areas.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.